wedding wednesday – save vs splurge

On today’s installment of Wedding Wednesday, we’re going to talk moneyyyyy. Well I’m not going to talk actual dollar and cents (for the most part) but I’m going to chat a little about our wedding budget and how we did the whole save vs splurge thing.

First off, a disclaimer: there were no real “splurges” in our wedding, meaning I think everything was pretty reasonably priced. So my splurges were only splurge-y (probably a bad word choice…) in relation to our overall spending.

Save

Flowers - I wanted pretty simple centerpieces and didn’t want to overspend on flowers. Shockingly, flowers can blow your budget out of the water and I didn’t want to do that. So, my mother made our centerpieces and the flowers for the church. The arrangements were pretty simple and she got all the flowers from Costco and the vases from a craft store. Then we had a (cheap) local florist do the bouquets because my mom was afraid to ruin them. I think our flowers came to just a few hundred dollars.

Shoes – I was obsessed with my wedding shoes. I really wanted something different and my vintage style dress reminded me of the booties worn with fancy dresses back in olden times. No general era – just “olden times.” I originally bought an awesome pair of white booties from Bhldn that were $160. They ended up being a smidge too tight so I had to return them. But I lucked out by finding a nearly identical pair at Modcloth for only $40. And they were pretty comfy soo, so win/win.

Music – Last week I mentioned how I roped my friend’s husband into being our free dj. The music was super important to me and it was awesome to work with my friend who gave me control over pretty much the entire playlist.

Cake – Have a friend who is a baker? Luckily, we did, and were able to save on the cake. We also had family and friends contribute amazing cookies to the traditional Pittsburgh wedding cookie table. If you want to save some money, consider just getting a small cake to cut as a couple and then serve either sheet cake or smaller desserts to guests.

Makeup – I am so lucky to have talented and generous friends and my amazing makeup artist friend gifted makeup to me and my bridesmaids. Amaaaaaazing. Wedding makeup can be ‘spensive so if you want to save on that, see if you can enlist the help of some talented friends. Or, if you have time, some of the wedding party can get their makeup done at a cosmetics counter at the mall.

Accessories – My purse for the wedding was from a vintage shop and was about $28. I bought my veil on Etsy instead of the $250 veil they tried to sell me at the bridal shop. My jewelry was from J. Crew and wasn’t super cheap, but I got it on sale, so I’ll count that in the “save” column.

Decor – I recycled decor from some of my friends’ weddings. I used two birdcages my friend had used in her wedding and spray painted them gold to match my decor. I also used her table number holder thingies – they were originally silver so I spray painted those babies gold too. And I hand-made the placecards by stalking Pinterest and getting crafty.

Invitations – I got our invitations on Vistaprint and they were pretty cheap. I like how they turned out but they were definitely pretty simple. That’s why I hand-wrote out the addresses to fancy up the invites a bit.

Transportation – I needed a shuttle to take wedding guests back to the hotel, but I only needed the shuttle for a short period of time since the venue was only about a mile from the hotel and not a ton of people were staying there since most people were local. And I needed transportation for the wedding party to the church and then from the church to the reception venue. I could’ve booked a fancy limo for the wedding party and then a separate shuttle and paid a lot more. But instead, I found a great deal on a shuttle that would do it all. It wasn’t pretty but it did it’s job. Meh.

Splurge

Nails – You guys know I’m obsessed with fancy nails and I didn’t just want a plain old manicure. I go to an amazing nail salon and splurged on getting a fancy hand painted design. And it was perfection.

Food/venue – The food was super important to us and we wanted a unique venue. Our venue wasn’t a splurge at all (especially compared to quotes I got from lots of other vendors), but we also didn’t go dirt cheap. We loved the venue, it was the perfect size for us and the food was damn good. So the price was worth it for us.

Honeymoon – This is obviously separate from our wedding, but we knew we wanted to go to Hawaii, which obviously isn’t a cheap vacation. So we made sure to save up enough to enjoy our honeymoon guilt-free.

In Betweeny

Dress – My dress was a little over the budget I originally set for myself buuuuuut it didn’t break the bank and I loved it. So I’m going to say it’s allowed.

Photographer – Again, our photographer was right on our budget but we could’ve easily overspent. If you’re looking for a photographer don’t necessary let the price guide you 100% of the time. Don’t choose the cheapest OR the most expensive. Your wedding is just a day but your photos are the only lasting thing. So find a photographer’s whose style you love and also make sure you have a good connection with them too so you will feel comfortable in front of them.

So the moral of this story and my advice to other brides would be – decide what is important to you and your fiance. And try not to worry about what other people think/want. If a designer dress is important to you and you’re on a budget, see where you can cut back in other ways. If you’re on a tight budget overall, do what I did and recruit your talented friends/family to help you out. If you want to have your reception at an expensive venue, you might need to scale back on the guestlist or consider having a shorter reception in order to save costs. You can have your dream wedding on any budget – just figure out your priorities and save/splurge according.

Need more wedding stuff? Go check out my past posts:

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